U.S. Offices Update - March 2014

Welcome to our U.S. Offices update. It has been a busy start to 2014 and we are continuing to see a lot of interest in the use of Irish holding companies in public international M&A transactions.  We discuss why Ireland is the favored location for this activity. There has also been good news for the Irish securitisation industry with confirmation from the Irish Central Bank that the AIFMD regulatory regime will not apply to most Irish securitisation vehicles.  Meanwhile the Irish funds industry goes from strength to strength and the introduction of a new corporate investment vehicle (the ICAV) later this year will add even greater flexibility.  Ireland's preeminent position in the funds world has also been reinforced with the results of a recent EIU study commissioned by Matheson. Finally, we provide an update on recent data protection developments in Europe and, in particular, in the context of the EU/U.S. safe harbor regime for data transfers from the EU to the U.S.